Research on sex worker rights

[Eva Klambauer]

Hello,

I am a PhD student at King's College London conducting research on the relationship between the regulation of sex work and sex worker's rights activism. I am looking for interested active sex workers as well as people with previous experience in the sex industry in the UK and New South Wales in Australia. I would like to conduct interviews in person, skype or by phone to ask about your opinions of the current laws that regulate the sex industry and what kind of changes, if any, you would like to see. If you have taken part in any protest events or any form of political activism (this is not a requirement to participate), I would invite you to tell me more about that as well. 

I am not a sex worker myself. I am conducting research on the impact of the policies and laws on sex workers' living and working conditions and sex workers' opinions on it. I want to use my research to work towards better laws and rights for sex workers and would like to learn from sex workers about how the law could be improved.

If you have ANY questions, please ask and I will do my best to answer.

Please have a look at this blog as it will give you more information about the project and get in touch if you are interested (eva.klambauer@kcl.ac.uk). Thank you! Eva Klambauer

resistanceandchange.wordpress.com



_{[link edited to make non-clickable]}

[Lucie268]

I think if you give these posts a read you'll find quite a few sex workers are not happy being part of research unless it's conducted by sex workers themselves. There's a lot of literature on why this is the case. I definitely am not happy being the subject of research as it usually either takes advantage of us or patronises us.

How will you compensate for time? As you must know, our time is money so by giving it to you for free we'll be missing out.

[victoryrose]

After having a read of the website, I don't believe this research is going to take advantage of or patronise us. OP is using their real name, you can easily look up what they have written in the past and can use all that information to make an informed decision about whether we can trust them or not. I believe we can. Re: compensation, I totally understand why that immediately puts a lot of sex workers off, doesn't bother me too much because I'm so part-time and will probably only be watching Netflix with my friend if I wasn't doing the interview, but as always it's your decision. If we only let sex work-led research happen then I imagine we wouldn't have a lot of the rights we have as we have them to thank for a lot of what leads to less criminalisation. That's.. Kind of the point of research. Most sex workers aren't academics. I intend to be, but even then I probably won't bother researching sex work as my realm is more psychology/sexuality not quite touching on paid sex (but who knows!). As long as you can clearly establish that the researcher is a trusted source, and as long as their research is almost entirely composed of sex worker's voices - as this seems to be - I don't think they have to be sex workers to be legit. A sex worker conducting research would be a pretty shit researcher if they weighed in on the discussion, as to do research you have to be pretty objective and unbiased, so it makes no difference if they're a sex worker or not to the point that they have some better kind of understanding - this understanding CAN be achieved without doing the work if you are heavily featuring our voices in your research. It's not black and white is basically what I'm saying.

[Lucie268]

Fair enough! It's just not something I myself feel comfortable with when it's research on a small scale.

[Eva Klambauer]

Thank you for your comments!

Lucie268, unfortunately I cannot pay for the interviews. I don't have any funding available for that. I could do them over the phone to minimise the time it would take. I really don't want to patronise anyone, but I completely understand your concerns. I personally think it is more patronising to write about a topic on a theoretical level without listing to people who actually know about it. I guess the alternative would be to not do that kind of research at all, but I don't think that is productive either. The academic debates on sex work are often extremely one-sided and not based on actual experiences of sex workers. I think that research that is actually based on interviews can contribute a lot to changing attitudes about sex work and better rights for sex workers. I want to use my research to advocate for that, but I don't just want it to be based on my opinions of what 'better rights' would mean.

It is quite difficult to find people who are willing to give an interview and I completely understand why that is the case. If you are not interested yourself, it would be great to get advice on how to approach sex workers and conduct research that is not perceived as taking advantage or patronising anyone. Please let me know if you have suggestions!

Thank you for the positive comment victoryrose!

[Lucie268]

Probably the same advice for any researcher i.e. don't assume and never ask leading questions.

I would be happy to do an interview by phone, I'll send you an email.

[Eva Klambauer]

Great! I am looking forward to it!

[International Whore]

I met with Eva last week and I found the Interview process to be a respectful, empowering and a thought provoking experience. I met Eva at a talk I gave at Cambridge University last October and was suitably impressed with her as an individual and her PhD topic.

[Eva Klambauer]

Thank you for the nice feedback Claire! It was really great to talk to you and very informative and helpful. Thanks again for agreeing to give an interview.

[Wailing Banshee]

I just had a phone interview with Eva, she clearly knows what she is doing and asked sensible important questions.

If you want to contribute, even in a small way to getting sex workers better rights or at least our voices being heard then why not do something like this. She didn't even ask for a real name so it's a totally anonymous thing.

[Mirror]

I just had a phone interview with Eva, she clearly knows what she is doing and asked sensible important questions.

If you want to contribute, even in a small way to getting sex workers better rights or at least our voices being heard then why not do something like this. She didn't even ask for a real name so it's a totally anonymous thing.

I've also participated

[Jemima2013]

As someone else said, why is this person researching sex work when they are not a sex worker? I think Lime Jello put this best, frankly we dont need to be your exhibits in the zoo

[Mirror]

As someone else said, why is this person researching sex work when they are not a sex worker? I think Lime Jello put this best, frankly we dont need to be your exhibits in the zoo

Because they are someone doing a PhD who is genuinely interested in sex worker rights. A person doesn't do a PhD for a laugh, it's a huge commitment(and a risk) financially, academically and personally. They also have to have their research proposal checked out, before they start by a university board, and also an academic supervisor which makes sure that the research is ethical, and doesn't cause harm or exploit anyone.

Someone has to do this research, and I don't give a stuff who it is so long as it's a sound piece of work.

[Eva Klambauer]

Hello, thank you so much to all 25 people who have already participated in the research project. I really appreciate your help! I would still like to conduct a few more interviews so please get in touch if you would be interested in taking part in a short interview! Thank you very much!

[ana30]

As someone else said, why is this person researching sex work when they are not a sex worker? I think Lime Jello put this best, frankly we dont need to be your exhibits in the zoo

Because they are someone doing a PhD who is genuinely interested in sex worker rights. A person doesn't do a PhD for a laugh, it's a huge commitment(and a risk) financially, academically and personally. They also have to have their research proposal checked out, before they start by a university board, and also an academic supervisor which makes sure that the research is ethical, and doesn't cause harm or exploit anyone.

Someone has to do this research, and I don't give a stuff who it is so long as it's a sound piece of work.

Exactly.

I was interviewed by Eva and found her very professional and polite. She's doing a great research  and didn't see any "pre-conceived ideas". She's worked as a social worker in the past and is all for legalization of sex work.